The 2022 Commonwealth Games organisers will feel fortunate that the third largest multi-sport event is all set to take off in Birmingham without being affected by the pandemic, on Thursday. The Games — representing 2.5 billion people from 72 nations and territories which were once ruled by the erstwhile British Empire — have been staged over the years amid anti-colonial sentiments and huge costs involved in hosting such an event. But the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has asserted that the Games — with its diversity that includes India with 1.3 billion people and Niue with a population of around 2,000 – have entered an era of renewed relevance. Underlining this, Birmingham, which replaced Durban as the host city and is ready to accommodate 6,500 athletes and officials by integrating 19 sports and eight para-sports, has highlighted the uniqueness of this latest edition. The debut of women’s T20 cricket, 3x3 basketball and mixed synchronised swimming will be among the new features for the first carbon neutral games being held at an estimated budget of nearly £800 million.
India, which has not finished outside the top five since 2002, has fielded more than 200 athletes across 19 different sports and para-sports. Still, the country, which gathered 66 medals in the previous edition in Gold Coast, may witness a sharp dip in its collection as there is no shooting, which contributed 16 medals in 2018. The removal of shooting from the 2022 edition and the absence of wrestling (another discipline that earned many medals for India) from the 2026 edition have not gone down well with the Indian sports fraternity. When shooting was left out of the 2022 programme, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had threatened to boycott the event. A compromise formula, under which shooting and archery were to be held in Chandigarh separately, could not be implemented due to the pandemic. In a recent meeting with the CGF president, Dame Louise Martin, top IOA officials made a request to include shooting and wrestling in the 2026 edition. At present, India will depend on its wrestlers, weightlifters, shuttlers, boxers, paddlers and squash players to win medals. In the absence of Olympic champion and World championships silver medallist javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, India will look forward to the likes of steeplechaser Avinash Sable, long jumper M. Sreeshankar and javelin thrower Annu Rani to deliver the goods. A good showing in athletics will redeem some pride for India, which faced embarrassment following three athletes testing positive for banned substances. The hockey players, who won plaudits for their impressive showing in the Tokyo Olympics, and women cricketers will also provide hope to sports lovers.
